Pop quiz, hotshot: BWDR veteran and De Palma completist Travis Woods joins us for a special conversation on one of our all-time favorites, Jan de Bont’s Speed (1994). We get into: repetition compulsion and classical Hollywood storytelling, Keanu’s peak hotness, Speed’s existential lessons, does Jeff Daniels close his eyes?, Mark Mancina’s love theme, what it means to “become bomb,” and more.
The perfection of Jan de Bont’s Speed owes not to its exemplification of “classical” Hollywood narrative, but to the intensity of its enthusiasm for those norms.
Speed is an indelible piece of modern American cinema, but if you tweak any one of its ingredients the entire recipe is changed.



